Getting the Urge.

Orion in our March skies. 


The Urge for Going. 
I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town
It hovered in a frozen sky, then it gobbled summer down
When the sun turns traitor cold
And all trees are shivering in a naked row
I get the urge for going but I never seem to go
I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in
I had me a man in summertime
He had summer-colored skin
And not another girl in town
My darling's heart could win
But when the leaves fell on the ground
And bully winds came around pushed them face down in the snow
He got the urge for going and I had to let him go
He got the urge for going
When the meadow grass was turning brown
And summertime was falling down and winter was closing in
Now the warriors of winter they gave a cold triumphant shout
And all that stays is dying and all that lives is getting out
See the geese in chevron flight flapping and racing on before the snow
They've got the urge for going and they've got the wings so they can go
They get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in
I'll ply the fire with kindling and pull the blankets to my chin
I'll lock the vagrant winter out and I'll bolt my wandering in
I'd like to call back summertime and have her stay for just another month or so
But she's got the urge for going so I guess she'll have to go
She get the urge for going when the meadow grass is turning brown
And all her empires are falling down
And winter's closing in
And I get the urge for going when the meadow grass is turning brown
And summertime is falling down.

Source: LyricFind
Songwriter: Joni Mitchell
Urge For Going lyrics © O/B/O Apra Amcos

Click here to hear Joni sing this beautiful song about autumn. (It's worth the click)

Here in New Zealand as we slowly turn our face towards autumn we are starting to have colder nights. However news from the rest of the world seems a lot colder. I hope you are all finding ways to deal.  If you are, and care to share any strategies for this dealing, or, better still, good news, please comment below! 

- Kate.

Steinbeck and the Last Visible Dog.

I have just finished reading 'East of Eden' by John Steinbeck. It's my second reading and a better one, because I took my time and read it properly, thinking about it as I went, sucking the marrow, so to speak.

I am struck by the similarity of Hoburn's philosophy in 'The Last Visible Dog' and the idea explored by Steinbeck of guilt, right and wrong, personal growth and personal accountability vs. fate, etc. 

When I revisited my ex once, he had a note on his fridge 'If it's to be, it's up to me'. It doesn't matter that this seemed a new idea for him, something he had to remind himself. Some of us are helped by parenting and circumstance to know this, to have incorporated it, and others not. 

These are different ways of seeing the same idea.

The older I get, the more I am disquieted by the idea of atonement. I am uncomfortable with the notion of karma. These, to me, smack of childish superstition.  I feel 'forgiveness of sins' is not useful.  They all remove personal accountability and the incentive, even necessity, for personal growth.

Here is one summary of 'East of Eden'.  It's a nicely crafted story, gritty, graceful. Allegorical. Great Steinbeck. 

That Hat

 

Good Morning from the Town

It's such a pleasure to see the sky wearing its morning sunrise garb, even if the foreground is urban - my neighbour's roof. 6.59am. We have heavy rain forecast tonight so I might check the gutters today. Although I cleaned them only recently, the trees are shedding their leaves at a great rate. We have a a very rainy summer in New Zealand, including several significant flood events. 

Deepest Darkest New Zealand

 Exactly a year ago I was a place in New Zealand I have never been, despite this being a relatively smallish three(-ish) islands, and me living here for 60 (-ish) years. 

I will call it Deepest Darkest New Zealand, even 'tho' wet and wild Fiordland at the Southwestern part of NZ is probably a little deeper and darker. (Here was re-discovered the amazing Takahe, the very rare, thought-to-be-extinct, stumpy-legged, flightless, fat, evolved version of the common blue swamphen which is seen throughout Asia.)

Anyway, Arthur's Pass is one of the four main passes through the backbone of mountains that run up the South Island.  There's not much at Arthur's except a cafe or two and a cluster of small houses, a conservation information centre, and a petrol station. Roy and I were lucky enough to be offered the use of a house belonging to my sister-in-law, and that's where we were, exactly a year ago, fossicking in the dripping beech forest and, a little further up the road, in the pristine alpine gardens, while almost all the populated part of New Zealand sweltered in summer droughts and, sadly, haze from the Australian bushfires... 

Imagine moss everywhere, slugs, spiders, harvestmen, centipedes, beetles, moths, lichens, fungi ...  A cornucopia of things of great interest to my travelling companion Swedish photographer friend Roy, and I.

We had only about a week to go before he had to fly out (just beating Covid border closures) back to Sweden, the two of us having had from mid November - 3 months straight - travelling and bug-hunting. all over New Zealand from top to almost the bottom. Marvellous! Pull up a chair to this blog, as over the next while I'll retrace our steps...

Spider-Mad

 Today I found four new (to me) species of spider in my garden.  Given that I have been here for 27 (twenty-seven!) years this coming March, and, especially in the las ten, have been actively looking for critters at least every week, it's rather amazing. I post them on iNaturalist and eventually, if it's possible, some kind entomologist will identify them, if I can't. Since I last blogged, I have had lots of (mainly critter-oriented) adventures, this can serve as an introduction. 

Here is the first of this species I have ever seen - a Bird-dropping spider.  I walked past it twice at first before I realised that bird-poo is rarely symmetrical. 

Yellow Things

I am sometimes - rarely - overwhelmed by a desire to order and categorise things... even in messy places like my garden.  Anyone else enjoy organising sometimes just a little bit too much ? 
Here's some photos of yellow things in my album that I tagged 'yellow' ...